Week 3

This week flew by with incredible speed.

The new predicament of this week proved to be interacting with my coworkers. Tuesday and Wednesday I didn't have any schools to work at (it was their athletic competition), and so spent the days at my desk in the office.
Don't get me wrong, everyone's so nice, but after Mr. Ishi's drunken wheedling of my shyness I was really putting pressure on myself to be more social- a hefty task when I don't have the ability to jump in on conversations or discuss anything remotely complicated without invoking frustration on the part of the listener.
Up until this point i'd been quite happy to study vehemently at my desk, free from personal distractions or the lure of loafing. To tell the truth I was overjoyed to have an environment where I could push myself hard, at my own pace, without wandering off to Tegaki or pokemon. So trying to force social interaction was a bit of a downer.
Wednesday I sort of cleared my head of all of it, decided to continue to study and do as I pleased, and enjoy conversations when they came to me. I feel this way works very well and am looking forward to the summer break at the end of next month, when I will be in the office every day. It's really great how much I can learn in a day when I have that kind of study time!

Other highlights-
-I played Kakurenbo for the first time (a mix between hide-and-seek and tag)
-Yuki-chan taught me to cook Oyako donburi and we shared music. She introduced me to YuraYura Teikoku, Unicorn, and the Beat Crusaders. All great indie bands! I shared with her Deerhoof and Apocalyptica, since she mentioned she liked Metallica.
Basically it was awesome.

Thursday I returned to Koganesho and met up with Mrs. Fukushi, the nice old lady who gave me tissues and spoke lovely english back in week 1. She took me to her house (we walked, even though she was hit by a car four years back and uses a cane- she really cruises!) and we spoke for hours about education, the difficulty in studying language, Margaret Thatcher, the danger of corn taking over America... We talked about everything. That lady fills my heart up.
The next time you think it is difficult to learn Japanese, please think of this story. Fukushi-sensei began learning english at the age of 13, but wasn't able to buy a tape recorder to listen to english pronunciation until she was 34 years old. She is reading through the biography of Margaret Thatcher's life (no modest task- I would be hard pressed to read that book as a natural speaker and diligent reader). It is her goal to live long enough to finish the book.
She lives alone in a big house she designed for herself, though one room of her house is dedicated to the shrine of her husband, who passed ten years ago, and the upstairs is full of his things. She volunteers to read city documents on tape so that it can be made into cds and distributed to the blind. She wants to teach the children English so they can be happy without money.
I can't really think about this woman without getting misty-eyed.

The last grand highlight of this week would be my trip to the sea. I've included some video and photos. I went on foot by myself and got a better feel for the size of Date. The closer I got to the sea the more it felt like an uninhabited place- well-kept gardens and houses everywhere, but the people were few and far between. I will go again sometime soon.


Final thoughts.
Shila Boof (sp??) is a much better actor when being dubbed over with the voice of a young Japanese man.
Optimus prime still sounds better in English.

Japan is a very interesting place.